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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25668985">Finding Home</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TallOnTheInside/pseuds/TallOnTheInside'>TallOnTheInside</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Last of Us</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drama, F/F, Family, Friendship, Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:14:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,740</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25668985</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TallOnTheInside/pseuds/TallOnTheInside</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellie and Joel arrive in Jackson after their search for the fireflies, suddenly presented with the opportunity of making a home there. Ellie meets a certain dark haired, brown eyed girl and develops a friendship that she always wishes could be more, oblivious to the fact that more is indeed possible. There is a dance, there is a kiss, but there is no blizzard, Tommy is kidnapped, Joel sets out to find him and Ellie follows with Dina by her side. Will Ellie ever find a true home in Jackson?</p><p>An alternative storyline to The Last of Us 2, beginning from Ellie and Joel's arrival in Jackson and following the development of Ellie and Dina's relationship, eventually moving in to an alternative telling of TLOU2. Mainly Ellie/Dina romance focused, (lots of fluff) with some Joel/Ellie moments, because they're too important not to include. Some elements of the story will remain the same, especially pre-blizzard, but from there things get a liiiiittle different. (i.e. Giving Ellie and Joel a better chance at forgiveness, and Dina and Ellie the happiness they deserve - I'm a sucker for a happy ending.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us), Ellie &amp; Joel (The Last of Us)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Finding Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Alright then kiddo...” Joel said, awkwardly backing towards the door of Ellie’s new home. “I’m off to speak to Tommy and Maria about patrol shifts and what-not. I’ll be back in a couple hours or so if you wanna meet for dinner.”</p><p>“Okay.” Ellie nodded vaguely. Non-committal. Joel lingered a moment longer, before exiting the small garage conversion, shutting the door quietly behind himself. After hearing Joel’s heavy footsteps fade off into the distance, Ellie flopped onto the double bed she was now to call hers, stretching her arms and legs out like a starfish as she stared up at the ceiling. She had to admit, after months of being on the road, sleeping on hard floors and old lumpy sofas, a half-decent mattress felt like heaven. Ellie let out a deep sigh, hopelessly attempting to push out the weight of everything that had happened in the past few months in one gust of air…it didn’t work. She felt more conflicted than she had ever felt in her life. On the one hand, she and Joel were finally safe, well, as safe as you possibly could be in an infected ridden, post-apocalyptic world. They were finally staying put, they had roofs over their head, they still had each other – which had come to mean so much to the both of them. But, on the other, all of it felt somehow meaningless, everything should have been different when Joel and Ellie came back to Jackson, everything should have been different because of her, because of her immunity, and yet it wasn’t.</p><p>When Joel had told her that all their efforts, all that time spent finding the fireflies, had been for nothing, it had been devastating. Even more potentially devastating was the gnawing voice in the back of Ellie’s mind, telling her that it wasn’t the truth. For about the hundredth time, Ellie stifled that dangerous voice, burying it as far into the recesses of her brain as she could, knowing it would fight its way back to the surface within a mere number of hours. If her fears of Joel having lied to her were confirmed, it would shatter everything she still had to hold on to. She wanted to believe Joel’s story, because even though the idea of her immunity being meaningless was heart-breaking, it was infinitely less heart-breaking than the alternative.</p><p>Suddenly, Ellie was shaken from her thoughts by a soft knock at her door. At first, Ellie thought she must have imagined it, but then the knock came again, a little louder this time. She stood up cautiously, she knew Joel had left to go and speak to Tommy and Maria only minutes ago, he couldn’t be back already, so who the hell was coming to see her? She slowly crossed the room to the door and pulled it open. Stood there, was a girl who looked to be around Ellie’s age, holding a large cardboard box against her hip.</p><p>“Hey” She said, cheerfully.</p><p>“Uh…hey” Was Ellie’s pathetic response. She couldn’t help but notice that the girl was very pretty. She had striking jet black hair, and large, deep brown eyes, and she was smiling at Ellie so warmly and genuinely it made her cheeks feel warm. A brief silence passed between them, both of them just looking at one another expectantly, until the dark-haired mystery girl broke the silence.</p><p>“Oh shit, sorry, I totally forgot you have no idea who I am - I’m Dina.” She offered her free hand to Ellie, Ellie hesitated a beat, before realising this was the part where they were supposed to shake hands. She did so, awkwardly, but Dina didn’t seem to notice.</p><p>“I hope you don’t mind me just showing up at your door like this. Maria told me you were moving in here and I thought I’d come say hi – it’s not every day we get another teenager moving into Jackson.”</p><p>Another awkward silence.</p><p>Come on, Ellie, say something! Stop being so awkward! Ellie was urging herself internally, luckily Dina saved her again.</p><p>“Mind if I come in?” She asked, gesturing slightly to the room.</p><p>Ellie flushed, realising how weird she had been acting leaving her standing on the doorstep.</p><p>“Oh, sorry, sure.” She stepped aside to allow Dina to make her way into the room, where she proceeded to place the box on the edge of the bed before turning back to face Ellie, who finally managed to think of something to say. “What’s in the box?” She asked, curious now.</p><p>“Oh, I brought a couple things for your room, if you want.” She smiled again, and, for the second time, Ellie felt her cheeks go warm. She looked down at her shoes, hoping Dina wouldn’t notice her blush.</p><p>“Oh, thanks, you didn’t have to…”</p><p>“Don’t worry, it’s nothing major, just a few fairy lights and an old rug – it’s still in pretty good shape though. Oh, I brought you a notebook too” She reached into the box and pulled out a leather notebook, holding it out for Ellie to take, “– they tend to be useful for keeping track of work shifts and stuff, or, you know, doodling or whatever.”</p><p>Ellie took the book, offering Dina a slightly timid smile, “Thanks.” She didn’t know why she was feeling so shy, she wasn’t normally the shy type, but then again, she wasn’t normally meeting pretty girls, with warm smiles, without any imminent threat of infected or enemies to distract her.</p><p>Dina gave her a nod, “You’re welcome.” She paused, glancing around the space, her eyebrows pulled slightly together, assessing. “You wanna put the fairy lights up? It’s usually easier with an extra pair of hands. I reckon they’d work well over there by your desk.” She pointed over to the back corner of the main room, where Ellie’s desk was pushed against the wall. She had to admit, it was all looking a little bare, a little decoration could be nice - make it feel a little more like home, whatever that was supposed to mean. Ellie had never had a real home before. She had grown up in military school dorm rooms, and then with Joel, it had been place to place, never settled.</p><p>“Ellie?”</p><p>Dina’s voice broke Ellie out of her musings, realising that she was still waiting there for an answer.</p><p>“Oh yeah, sure, thanks.” She hesitated, surely this girl had far better things to do than help her decorate her cabin. “I mean, if you’re not busy or anything.” She hastily added, shrugging, trying to act cool, knowing that her chances of giving that impression had probably flown out the window the moment she had failed to know how to shake hands properly. Way to go, Ellie! She thought.</p><p>“Nope! I’ve got a free day! So, I can help you with your room and then we can go hang out with some of the others if you want? I think people are meeting at the park later.”</p><p>“Oh, uh, yeah…sure, sounds…fun.” The words felt alien to Ellie. The whole thing felt alien - hanging out, the park, making friends…it was bizarre. But Ellie liked the way Dina smiled at her, it made her feel like maybe bizarre wouldn’t be so bad.</p><p>Dina chuckled, noticing Ellie’s tone. “Don’t sound so sure.” She joked. Raising her eyebrows at the red-haired girl questioningly.</p><p>“No, no! it’s just, well, I guess it’s weird. Like, being able to just, hang out, you know?” She stuttered, trying to explain so she didn’t look like a total ass.</p><p>Dina nodded gently, her eyes gentle, “Yeah, I get it. It was weird when I got here too. Feels like all of a sudden you’re in a different world.”</p><p>“Exactly.” Ellie nodded. They smiled at each other; the silence wasn’t awkward this time. Instead, it was calm, understanding, like something had clicked between them, and it felt nice. “When did you get here?” Ellie asked, the art of conversation starting to come more naturally again now.</p><p>“About a year ago.” Dina answered, shrugging.</p><p>“Who’d you come with?” The question left Ellie’s lips before she had really given it permission. Something about this girl made her curious, like she wanted to know everything she could about her as quickly as possible. But as Ellie watched Dina’s expression shift a little, become more detached, sadder, she knew it was the wrong question to ask.</p><p>“I came alone.” She muttered quietly. Looking down at the ground, her arms coming up to fold over her chest defensively.</p><p>Damn it, Ellie, you insensitive jerk! Ellie cursed herself.</p><p>“I’m sorry.” She whispered, stepping forward towards Dina, her arm twitching a little, wanting to offer better comfort to her but not quite knowing how, she let her arm drop awkwardly to her sides again, before deciding to shove her hands in her back pockets.</p><p>“Thanks.” A quiet moment passed, and then, to Ellie’s relief, Dina brightened again, looking back up and meeting Ellie’s green eyes.</p><p>“So, Ellie, you ready for some interior decorating?” She said, her voice dramatic, as if offering Ellie some mighty challenge, pulling out a handful of tangled fairy lights and grinning at her, her dark eyes playful.</p><p>“Some what?” Ellie said, her eyebrows pulling together in response to the new phrase.</p><p>Dina rolled her eyes dramatically, “It means making stuff inside look nice you dork!” She exclaimed as she started passing strings of fairy lights to her. Ellie scoffed, trying to act offended, knowing that Dina’s tone was still kind, teasing.</p><p>“Oh, you’re calling me a dork for not knowing weird old-world terms like internal decorating?” She sounded out the words slowly, trying to get the pronunciation right and raising a teasing eyebrow back at the other girl.</p><p>“Interior, not internal!” Dina laughed, “You make it sound like some kinda operation!”</p><p>“Oh whatever” Ellie quipped, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth – she liked hearing Dina laugh, it was infectious. Dina rolled her eyes again and it already felt familiar somehow, natural.</p><p>“Come on dork, let’s get these up.” She said, nudging Ellie with her elbow as she started heading for the desk. Ellie followed, doing as she was told – a rare occurrence as Joel could vouch for. She felt a small smile forming on her face – she liked this Dina girl with the dark hair and the brown eyes and the warm smile and the nice laugh…she liked her a lot.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed, please do comment/leave kudos if you enjoyed! I haven't written any fanfiction since I was about 15 I think, so it's been a while, just doing this as a hobby and because as a hopeless gay myself I just want there to be as much Ellie/Dina fluff out there in the world as possible! If this gets some decent response I'll make an effort to continue and update as regularly as possible. Not entirely sure how far I'll go with it, the summary is a broad outline but we'll see what happens! </p><p>x</p></blockquote></div></div>
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